Piaf was a real little dictator but in a good way, in a smooth way. When we would go to a restaurant, she’d say, “I’m taking this. And what are you taking?” And we had to say we were taking the same thing. We had to eat the same thing, read the same thing, live the same life.
I once wrote a song for her. She said, “I don’t want it.” So I went to see a young girl singing in a club. I gave her the song. Piaf said, “How dare you to give my song to that girl! I’m going to sing it to show her how.”
A friend who had a club called La Vie en Rose asked Piaf for a song. Piaf wrote “Les Choses en Rose,” but later changed it to the name of the club. Marlene Dietrich told Piaf, “I’m going to go to America and I want to sing this song.” Piaf said, “OK, take it.”
She was very vulnerable when she would meet a man, but only for a few weeks. Then he was the slave. Except with Marcel Cerdan, the boxer. He was on his way to New York for a rematch. She was singing at the Versailles, so he went early to stay with her. But the plane hit a mountain. She stayed closed in her room for two or three days. After that, she came out with all her hair cut, and she sang “Hymne a l’Amour” for the first time. She finished the song in her room, and sang it for him.
